


Let what is broken so remain

by Dissenter



Series: Cry havoc [6]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Flame Bonding, Historical, Mafia Politics, Period-Typical Sexism, Succession battles, Women In Power, World War II, bamf Daniela, wartime Vongola
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-10-22
Packaged: 2019-01-21 14:22:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12459609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dissenter/pseuds/Dissenter
Summary: Cavallone Settima has just ascended, it's up to Daniela to help clean up the mess.





	Let what is broken so remain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/gifts).



> Because I felt like Daniela really should have some female guardians. Also Tiberia is enormous fun to write, and her ascension deserved more attention

Daniela trod carefully as she entered the Cavallone mansion. The place resembled nothing so much as an upturned anthill, lower ranks scurrying and panicking, and frantically trying to keep busy. It lent weight to some of the more serious rumours coming out of the family. Not that they’d had time to spread far, but Daniela was the Donna di Vongola and she had good sources.

Beltrano was at her side, as he always was these days. Somehow he’d slid into the position of her right hand without anyone even registering he was doing it. Not that she was particularly surprised, he was a Mist after all. Of her currently bonded guardians he was the only one with the inclination for the position, and it wasn’t as if he could ever bring himself to do something as boring and straightforward as _asking_ for the job. She surpressed a smile at the memory of the moment the underbosses collectively realised she had a Mist as her second in command. She was pretty sure some of them had been struggling not to wet themselves.

She forced down her smile. This visit wasn’t about Beltrano, it was about Tiberia. Who was her friend, who, if the reports were true, was now the Donna of the Cavallone. The details were muddled but however it had happened must have been messy, because Tiberia had a father in good health and a little brother only four years old, and anything that could take them both out of play couldn’t have been pretty. And so Daniela was twice sworn to find out what had happened and offer support if it was needed. Once as the Vongola Ottava, ally to the Cavallone, and once as Daniela, who called Tiberia her friend.

…

It was both better and worse than she’d thought. She’d entered the Cavallone’s main audience hall and been confronted by the sight of Tiberia sitting in the Don’s chair, dressed in a bloodstained ballgown, elegantly sipping wine from a delicate crystal glass. The room was otherwise empty Tiberia’s new underlings too afraid to stay in her line of sight, and the blank look in her friend’s eyes had Daniela concerned. She motioned for Beltrano to hide them. Whatever happened next it was best not to let it be gossip all over the alliance families.

“Tiberia.” She said, softly, but with a Sky’s command in her voice. Tiberia was a Sky in her own right of course, but Daniela was Vongola, with all the power that bloodline implied, and she knew Tiberia could feel the force of Daniela’s voice.

“Ah Daniela.” Tiberia smiled, as gracious as if it were just another visit between princesses. As though the delicate peach of her gown wasn’t soaked through with dark red. “How wonderful of you to stop by. I’m afraid I’m not really prepared for company as you can see.” She smiled then, a cracked and broken thing. Daniela approached slowly, and sat herself down next to the new Cavallone Settima.

“Oh well. You know how it is. I was in the neighbourhood and decided to stop by and see what you’d been up to.” She kept her voice calm, laced it through with soothing Rain laced Sky, soothing the ragged edges of Tiberia’s Storm. Tiberia noticed what she was doing of course, she was far from stupid. But she didn’t try to stop Daniela, self-aware enough to know she needed the insulation. Instead she just turned to look Daniela directly in the eye, Sky orange to Sky orange.

“I’m glad you’re here Dany. It’s been such a long day, and I’ve been so _tired._ Couldn’t afford to let it show, couldn’t afford to look weak after what I did, but you’re here now. You’ll watch over me won’t you.” And now Daniela could see it, that Tiberia was running mostly on Flames, and that those Flames were themselves depleted. Tiberia had been fighting.

“Of course I will Ty. But what happened here?” Tiberia smiled again, and this time there was a dark viciousness in it that was entirely more like the Tiberia Daniela knew.

“Isn’t it obvious? There’s been a coup, I killed my father and packed my brother off to America, and I’ve taken control of the family. My forces are at your disposal Donna di Vongola. With that she knocked back the last of her drink, and stood, only slightly shaky despite the multiple empty bottles by her feet. “I think I will retire to bed now. I’m sure you can handle things until I wake up.” And with that she left for her chambers. Daniela might have worried if Tiberia had been anything but utterly lethal, as it was, she worried more for whoever her friend might encounter in the hallways on her way.

Fuck but this was a mess. Tiberia had killed her father, and while Daniela knew Tiberia had a temper, she didn’t think she’d do something like that without a good reason. Daniela was confident that Tiberia had done what was necessary. But it was still a mess. It looked like Tiberia had her famiglia running too scared to actually challenge the validity of her coup, but fear could only take you so far in running a family. Tiberia needed support, internal support, not just whatever weight Daniela could bring to bear on her behalf.

Of course Tiberia wasn’t exactly temperamentally suited to politicking and building support, in subtle ways, that was why she’d made such a terrible princess. Probably why she’d handed that job off to Daniela really. So now Daniela had to find Tiberia support that could handle those things for her. Maybe a Rain, or a Lightning. If Tiberia was Donna now she’d need guardians, and guardians were always the most reliable kind of support. She ran her mind through Cavallone that she knew well enough to trust with helping her sort all of this out.

Unsurprisingly most of the list were women. She hadn’t been the heir, it had never been a priority to have her socialise with the fighting members of the allied families. There were a few possibilities, but the one that really stuck out was Constanza. Not a guardian prospect, not for Tiberia at any rate. They’d tried to harmonise once and it hadn’t taken, they were too much alike for the bond to stick Daniela suspected. But Constanza was smart, and politically aware, and would know who to suggest for Tiberia’s guardians. Daniela locked down hard the quiet thought at the back of her mind, that Constanza might not have fitted Tiberia, but she could fit Daniela, if Daniela let her. The issue here was Tiberia. Anything else would have to wait for things to be stabilised.

A snapped demand to a low level lackey, a few minutes wait, and Constanza was in front of her, as fierce and wild as ever. They’d talked for a long time, about the situation within the family, about the situation outside, about possibilities for Tiberia’s guardians, and Constanza had worked through every question competently until Daniela finally ran out of distractions. Then she spoke, with an aggression that was all Storm.

“So are you going to ask?” There was nothing subtle about Constanza. She was even wilder than Tiberia, with no harmonising Sky to offset Storm’s rage, and no familial expectations to bind her into a socially acceptable mould. A bastard, Tiberia’s cousin through the late Don’s sister, they’d tried shaping her into an acceptable mafia princess, and found that it was a losing battle. She was too fierce, too aggressive in all the wrong ways, and she refused to bend. She was too much trouble and she just wasn’t important enough for the effort to be worthwhile, so in the end her uncle had given in and had her trained for combat. Perhaps in the hope she’d make a useful discreet bodyguard or assassin.

Daniela had first met her at one of the many boring mafia parties that princesses were expected to attend, before Constanza’s uncle had finally given up on trying to make her a lady. Daniela had kept her Flames locked down tightly, avoided reaching out to the Flames of potential guardians, but she’d still felt Constanza from across the room, all the frustration, and boredom, and irritation at the pointlessness of it all that half the women in the room were probably feeling, but were too well trained to express, even through their flames. It had been like a breath of fresh air, or maybe cleansing fire. And they’d met and talked, and Daniela had _wanted._ But Daniela had known her duty, had been a good princess and held back, had thought maybe after she was married, when she knew what politics she’d have to work with.

But Daniela was Donna now, there was no marriage waiting for her, and no reason to hold back. Constanza was right, there was no point in dodging the issue. They both knew what they wanted. She didn’t ask with words, words fell short. Instead she released her flames, let orange fire dance under her skin, and rise into the air to clash with red, to push and demand, and challenge. Daniela rose with her flames, looked directly into Constanza’s eyes until Constanza broke the gaze, looked down and away in submission and their flames flowed into each other like the crashing of waves.

**Author's Note:**

> Meet Constanza. She takes gender conventions and expectations about women's role in life and she sets them on fire. She's a lot like Tiberia, but far more extreme, and because she's a bastard from an offshoot branch there's less pressure on her to behave. So she doesn't.  
> Incidentally it didn't come up but she's a hand to hand fighter, she has a set of flame conductive brass knuckles that let her disintegrate people's faces when she hits them, it's fairly terrifying.


End file.
